Warning law on sugar ads sweetened for Coca-Cola
San Francisco supervisors’ passage of a landmark sugar ad warning for sodas and other sweet drinks is getting a lot of national attention — but strangely enough, the new law will have no effect on the two biggest and best-known soda ads in the city.
The ordinance that the board passed last week exempts the giant neon Coca-Cola billboard along Interstate 80 near the Bay Bridge and the Giants’ world-famous Coke bottle slide at AT&T Park. That means neither will carry warnings that soda can rot your teeth and lead to diabetes.
The Coke slide won its exemption because it
already had to go through the city’s permit process. The Coke billboard, which has lit up the South of Market sky for as long as anyone can remember, gets a pass along with other “vintage” signs that are more than 50 years old, such as those hanging outside bars and restaurants.
“No one asked for an exemption — we were just being realistic,” said the law’s author, Supervisor Scott Wiener.
Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association, declined to comment on the two biggest exemptions. He did say the law is “more about trying to score political points than it is about health policy.”
Wiener said the initial plan was to exempt all signs that were up before the new rules go into effect, “but that would have been unworkable. How could we prove when a sign went up?”
Instead, he said, the supervisors opted to create a couple of “very narrow exemptions” — which just happen to cover the two signs actually seen by most people.
The board-mandated warnings — which must be at least 20 percent the size of the ads — cover sweetened drinks that have more than 25 calories per 12-ounce serving.
While most of the attention is focused on sodas, the warnings cover coffee drinks as well.
So, a store poster with an inviting picture of a Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino Blended Creme will also have to carry a warning.
“This is for everyone,” Wiener said. POA vs. D.A.: The already contentious relationship between the San Francisco cops and District Attorney George Gascón has taken another turn for the worse — with the police union’s president sending letters to 120 of Gascón’s deputies in which he accuses their boss of “political pandering of the worst kind.”
“Ever since leaving our department after a short, unremarkable tenure as chief of police, Mr. Gascón has used his office largely for the furtherance of his own political career,” wrote Marty Halloran, president of the Police Officers Association.
In particular, Halloran is ticked off about the D.A.’s call for a special task force to investigate the racist-text scandal involving about a dozen cops. Halloran called the task force “self-serving and baseless.”
“It is baffling and astounding that he would use inappropriate text messaging by a handful of our officers to attempt to tarnish our entire department,” Halloran wrote.
What really has the union up in arms is Gascón’s alli- ance with Public Defender Jeff Adachi, whose job is to try to acquit the people the cops arrest. In fact, just the other day, Adachi co-hosted a fundraiser for Gascón’s re- election.
“I’ve never seen that happen before.” Halloran said.
Asked about the letter, district attorney spokesman Alex
Bastian said it was “disappointing” that the POA is “turning its back on the citizens of San Francisco” and officers who are “committed to the fair administration of justice.” Rocking it: Some 50 board members of Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum just rolled through San Francisco for their annual retreat, on a mission of peace and love.
President and CEO Greg Harris told us, “We look at San Francisco as a town where we would love to do more” — such as collaborating on exhibits. The museum’s
Paul Simon traveling exhibition and another upcoming one featuring the work of photographer Herb Ritts could be headed this way.
And don’t be surprised if we start hearing about plans to mark the 50th anniversary of Rolling Stone magazine, founded right here in 1967 by
Jann Wenner.
“No one asked for an exemption — we were just being realistic.” Supervisor Scott Wiener, on exceptions to the sugar ad warning law for Coca-Cola